1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns a working method suited to give a worn out aspect to articles of clothing made of denim materials and a machine suited to carry out such a method.
2. General State of the Art
It is a known fact that the manufacturers of casual-fashion clothing made of denim materials in order to follow the trend of the market, treat the articles of clothing so as to give them a worn-out aspect.
In order to give the article of clothing said worn-out aspect, a washing operation is performed during which the article of clothing is treated with proper enzymes or with pumice powder, thereby producing the discolouring of the cloth and the worn out aspect previously mentioned. Sometimes it is also required that said articles of clothing present a worn out aspect which is localized only over particular areas. This is obtained by concentrating in the concerned areas a particularly strong discolouring operation through supplementary treatments.
One of the known methods used to perform such treatment consists in a very energetic manual brushing of the areas of the article of clothing where the discolouring is to be concentrated, thereby obtaining what in the technical jargon of this industrial sector is called "sanded effect". The inconveniences of such method of operation are rather obvious, the most evident being the length of time required by this operation and the ensuing high labour costs. Moreover, since this process must be performed manually, and depends exclusively on the operator's skill, it does not guarantee any continuity or reproduction of the same quality in the finished product.
Another known method consists in performing manually a localized sanding process by blasting the article of clothing with a mixture of air and sand. This method presents the same inconveniences presented by the before-described method with the addition that it is also highly polluting both for the environment and for persons involved in the process, so that it requires suitably equipped spaces for it to be carried out.
It is with the purpose of eliminating the mentioned inconveniences that the working method and the machine suited to carry it out, which are the object of the present invention are disclosed.
One of the purposes of the invention is to give the articles of clothing a worn-out aspect, localized in certain pre-determined areas, whereby the production costs are remarkably lower than those of other presently used methods.
Another purpose of the invention is to insure time and time again the continuity and the repetition of the same quality of the finished product.
Not the least purpose is to make the working process less polluting than the methods used at present, both for the persons involved and for the environment.